Artist:  The Goo Goo Dolls & Director

Venue: The Barrowlands, Glasgow

Date: 28 may 2006  

With the change of venue for tonight’s gig making way for the great demand for tickets for The Goo Goo Dolls, it makes me wonder why this band aren’t bigger than they are.  A fine example of this is the fact that when friends asked me what I was doing this bank holiday weekend I said I was going to Glasgow to see The Goo Goo Dolls, they looked a little perplexed and said who?  But if you'd said that to any of the fans queuing outside The Barrowland’s venue you would have been publicly flogged in the middle of Gallowgate by said fans.

As the capacity crowd gathered outside in anticipation you could sense the excitement of many of them, as this was the bands first gig at the venue.

Opening up tonight’s show were Director from Ireland, who were a little sedate to say the least. Their brand of Indie music was very much in the same vein of The Smiths, with the band seemingly firmly fixed to one spot on the stage.  The band are all well crafted musicians, but seemed a little lacking in stage presence and weren’t really going to get the vast majority of the crowd warmed up before the main event.

With a set that was a mere 30 minutes long, the band settled down to their task with tracks like ‘Last Time’ and ‘Reconnect’, the bands new single, being the highlights of their short set.  Give them their due though, they weren’t put off by the crowds lack of enthusiasm and gave it their all.  I’m sure with the right crowd behind them they would really put on a show.  Maybe when the band play the V festival later this year, they will receive the sort of response they expect, but for the crowd here tonight, there was only one reason to be here.

And so at 9pm that time arrived, with the lights going down and the capacity crowd shouting out as one, The Goo Goo Doll's hit the stage.

The band opened up with a song off 'Let Love In' their new album.  The crowd went into immediate rapture as the first few chords of 'Stay With Me' hit the room, pints were flung into the air in a scene not too dissimilar to those wonderous musical fountains outside the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.

The fans launched into even more of a frenzy as the band continued the set with ‘Slide’ off the bands debut release.  As the crowd sang out loud it was clear from the off that this was going to be one hell of a special night for them.

Then it was back to the new album for the next two songs, ‘Feel The Silence’ and ‘Can't Let It Go’ with bassist Robby Takac stating the attitude ... “he was having more fun than one American is allowed to have”. Then the place well and truly erupted as the band went back their Gutter Flower album for ‘Smash’, the only song tonight off said album and a song that had the entire auditorium singing along as one voice.

The set continued with John Rzeznik giving a stirring vocal performance on ‘Black Balloon’.

The new album took precedence on tonight’s set but it was the fans favourites like ‘Iris’, ‘January Friend’, and ‘Broadway’ that really had the crowd jumping.

The remainder of the set was all from the new album, starting off with the gentle tones of ‘Better Days’ before things became heated up again with the excellent ‘Listen’ and ‘Without You Here’.  

The set came to a close with what is my favourite track off the new album ‘Let Love In’.  The band went off stage only for a short breather as the crowd cheered for more.  Soon they returned and did a two song encore that consisted of ‘Become’, and the bands own rendition of the Supertramp song ‘Give A Little Bit’, a version that I’m sure would get a thumbs up from writers Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies.  This rounded off a very special and overall memorable night for all the right reasons and one that will live in memories of the fans here tonight for a very long time.

Set list: Stay with you, Slide, Feel the Silence, Can't let it Go, Smash, Black Balloon, We’ll be here when your Gone, Iris, January Friend, Broadway, Better Days, Listen, Without you Here, Let love In, Become, Give a little Bit

 

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